The Abia State Government on Saturday arrested a 109-year-old akara seller, Mama Chidinma Eluwa, for allegedly violating the state’s monthly environmental sanitation exercise.
Recall that on 9th August 2023, Mama Chidinma Eluwa was invited to the office of the Special Assistant to the Governor on Vulnerable Groups and Poverty Alleviation by Mrs Ifeoma Thomas; the special assistant then announced some financial interventions and business sustainability plans for her.
Back then, many Abians believed that the centenarian, who was 106 then and popular at the Owerri Road by the Isigate area of Umuahia, who was placed on a monthly stipend for her upkeep, had had her story changed and life transformed.
According to published reports, on July 29th, 2023, Mama Eluwa, who lost her husband some years ago, is also left with just one son still living and was spotted at her shop by the Chief of Staff to the Abia State governor, Caleb Ajagba, who was returning from an environmental clean-up inspection on behalf of the governor.
On enquiry, the Chief of Staff was told that the aged woman had been in the Akara business for donkey years, which instantly made the CoS pencil down her name for special government intervention after having some interactions with her.
The Chief of Staff, on return to the government house in Umuahia, recommended his special discovery to the Office of the Special Assistant to the Governor on Vulnerable Groups and Poverty Alleviation, which took over the matter after carrying out more investigations about Mama Eluwa’s history in the Akara frying business.
Fast forward to three years later, the same Mama Eluwa, whom the government said they were going to place on a monthly stipend and also open a bank account for, was arrested for frying akara during the sanitation period in Umuahia and was later arraigned before the Sanitation Court alongside 65 other alleged offenders.
The aged woman was, however, discharged by Magistrate O. C. Ibekwe on compassionate grounds. She thereafter pledged to comply with the state’s sanitation order.
Of the 66 alleged offenders arraigned, seven were discharged on health and student-related grounds, while nine were sentenced to community service.
Meanwhile, the state government has warned that it may resort to stricter enforcement of the monthly sanitation exercise following low compliance by residents.
Speaking after the exercise on Saturday, the Commissioner for Environment, Mr Philemon Ogbonna, represented by the Head of Population Control and Environmental Health, Mrs Happiness Akpulonu, lamented the poor turnout of residents for the sanitation exercise.
He attributed the low compliance to the suspension of the exercise for several months, which, according to him, resulted in heaps of refuse, particularly at Orie Ugba Market and other major markets.
“We were overwhelmed. My team could not clear all the refuse we were meant to clear. Residents in Umuahia especially respond better to enforcement than advice. We may have to stop advising them and start enforcing compliance,” he said.
Ogbonna also called on local government chairmen to mobilise residents for clean-up exercises and strengthen supervision.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the House Committee on Environment and member representing Ohafia South State Constituency in the Abia State House of Assembly, Kalu Mba-Nwoke, attributed the poor compliance to the three-month suspension of the sanitation exercise.
He urged residents to treat cleanliness as a daily responsibility rather than limiting it to designated sanitation days, saying, “Environmental sanitation must be continuous. Even without government directives, we should clean our surroundings because it is our duty.”
EN
